I jar, bottle, jam and preserve anything I can from garden and plot and in most things you can "taste the difference" with home made being much better. However with seville orange marmalade, I have tried it both ways, preparing from scratch and using ma made and for once found no differenc...

If there are any left I wouldnt mind some too I live in Scraptoft so could perhaps collect Chantals for her as I am dropping off some barrels on Saturday.

David

yum yum piggys bum

Hi Chez,

sounds good, does it keep in sterilized jars for long?

David

Whoever said use ma made seville oranges deserves a big kiss. I knocked up 2 tins worth this evening and ended up with 11 1lb jars plus a bit over. As for taste, well it tastes every bit as good as the marmalade I made last autumn from fresh fruit but without about 4 hours of slicing and dicing sevi...

Well the crown prince and butternut sprinter are ordered allan, here hopes!

I will be planting my first earlies mid march and they should be ready in 10-12 weeks, the maincrop will be planted mid april to harvest Late August onwards.

David

All these differnt options reminded me about the Americans during the early part of the space race. They spent millions of dollars designing a pen that would work in space. The Russians, not having millions to spend on a pen that would work in space, simply took a pencil with them. A pencil to write...

I plant mine in raised beds mid February as I have the benefit that they are not sitting in waterlogged soil. If the weather looks particulally ferocious a bit of fleece over the top will keep them happy. I also grew shallots from seed last year, a variety called prisma by Thompson & Morgan. The...

Having had my potato crops decimated by slugs over the years, I now grow my potatoes in tubs. Having seen the price of the ones from the seed merchants and nurseries I was at first put off but then came up with an idea that recycles a waste product from where I work which happens to be a granite qua...

Hi Chez, I am based in Leicestershire like yourself and also find butternut squashes an enigma. I planted out 5 plants and lost 2 to slugs. The other three produced just 1 medium sized squash each. With that return in mind I think that this year I will use the space for Crown Prince pumpkins if I ca...

Hi, I have 2 ten pole allotments and still cannot fit everything I want into the area that I have. Therefore I grow things for four reasons as follows:- 1) I grow things that are expensive to buy such as asparagus, soft fruit, salad crops, cut flowers etc. 2)I grow things that are difficult to buy r...

Allan, I too was a little concerned about the bracing but will brace the uprights with scaffolding tube putlocked together. the posts are driven into the ground 3ft, the bottom 18" of which is very nasty blue marl clay which doesnt move as it is consistently wet through the water table height. I wil...

I am in the process of building one of these tunnels and can say that it is more strength in it than my neighbours bought tunnel. Firstly the sides are made from 8ft long scaffolding pipe driven 3ft into the ground leaving me with 8ft sides before the curve of the roof. The plastic is not "domestic ...

Jermor are ok, but the babies I brought back from France make them look like pickling onions and are exceptionally flavoured. I hope that they do well. Most of the French Longue shallots sold here are really only demi longue, primarilly I think as the French do not want to give up there seed and unt...